Flatbread is made from flour, water, and salt and formed into flattened dough before baking. Some flatbreads include additional ingredients such as curry powder, black pepper, olive oil, or sesame oil. The thickness of the flattened dough can range from one thirty-second of an inch to over an inch thick.
Flatbreads are made by hand or with automated equipment. For example, a factory or a production line can be used to produce one or more types of flatbread to reduce the cost of making the bread. One automated method of forming flatbread includes pressing flatbread dough.
Factories can include different types of tools for the different stages in the production process, such as a mixer, an oven, and a cooler. Some production lines have a tool to form flatbread dough into a ball and another tool to flatten the dough before baking. The flattened dough has a circular shape and a specific thickness so the flatbread will have a desired thickness after baking.
For example, a pressing apparatus presses a ball of dough until the pressed dough ball has a certain diameter. After the pressure is released from the pressed dough ball, the diameter of the pressed dough ball sometimes decreases due to elasticity of the dough. Changes to different process parameters, such as a heating temperature during pressing and the ingredients in the dough, sometimes have an effect on the diameter of the dough after pressing is completed. For example, a higher pressing temperature can help a pressed dough ball retain its shape.